COMMENTARY | Pat Robertson is the latest to show how cold and hypocritical religious fundamentalists can be. The evangelical preacher advised a follower whose wife was stricken with Alzheimer’s disease to divorce her and “start all over again,” according to The Associated Press.
Asked how he could reconcile the traditional Christian marriage vows, which require the participants to support each other “in sickness and in health…until death do us part,” Robertson claimed that Alzheimer’s is “a kind of death.”
Another shocking episode occurred earlier this week during the Republican tea party debate. When asked if the government should step in to help an uninsured man in a coma needing medical attention, Texas Rep. Ron Paul quipped, “that’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks,” reports Yahoo! News. The crowd of ultra-conservative, Christian tea party members cheered his cold-hearted indifference. Is this what modern Christianity has come to?
Let’s not forget the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the group as “a small, virulent homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group.” The members stage protests at institutions they believe support Jews, homosexuals and Catholics, including synagogues, consulates, and community centers. Waving signs that say “The Jews Killed Jesus” and “God Hates You,” they have perverted the messages of the Bible, turning them into their opposites. Love becomes hate; forgiveness, condemnation; mercy, intolerance.
Isn’t this what the Islamic faithful keep telling us the jihadists are doing to their religion?
Westboro extremists drew the ire of the nation when they staged a protest at the funeral of Spc. Edward Myers, a 21-year-old husband and father of two who perished in the line of duty. Westoro parishioners justified their actions, saying “America has ignored the word of God, and those who defend the nation must pay a price,” reported KMBC.
And then there’s Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., who endangered the lives of Americans in the Middle East and nearly sparked an international incident when he threatened to create a bonfire out of copies of the Quran. The burning was scheduled to coincide with the ninth anniversary of 9/11.
Jones eventually canceled his International Burn a Quran event but, in March of 2011, he held a mock trial where a copy of the Quran was the defendant. Not surprisingly, the book was found guilty of “promoting violence,” according to USA Today, and Jones burned it. One has to question the mental stability of a person who believes a fair and democratic trial can be held for a book, particularly one that all participants in the trial have prejudged as evil.
Leviticus 19:18 says, “love your neighbor as yourself.” From Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up dissention, but love covers over all wrongs.” When doctrine overruns devotion, religions can go awry. There seems to be an epidemic of misguided, holier than thou aggression in this country. It starts when the faithful forget what is written in Luke 6:37, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”